David W Lawson

Thanks to all who have signed so far. We have 73 signatories across a variety of disciplines. Let's see if we can break 200 before we send it off next week. Please re-post and send on to your colleagues. Thank you!

YouTube video by Cultural Evolution Society Transmissions Episode 2 with Dr Sarah Matthew

Excited for the new Transmissions episode on ASU's Sarah Mathew on how human warfare evolved, and her fieldwork in Kenya.

Watch here:
youtu.be/eUqEcxf5uBQ?...

New Episodes monthly! Created by @ferylbadiani.bsky.social and @ahnisnaahsi.bsky.social

CC: @arizonastateuni.bsky.social

Competition for heritable wealth, not cultural group selection, drives the evolution of monogamy | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Versatility, value and limitations of using health and demographic surveillance system data for secondary analyses: guidance for researchers, using examples from existing analyses - Journal of Populat... Journal of Population Research - Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) are geographic open cohorts operating in countries with absent/incomplete vital registration. Data on demographic...

New paper, led by Estelle McLean, on the value of data from Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems. These data sources are particularly suitable for complex longitudinal analyses which require consideration of household and familial contexts, but their complexity may result in their under-use

YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast) Culture, Killing, and PTSD with Sarah Mathew

This week, we talk to Sara Mathew about the psychology of killing, PTSD, and the relationship between our evolved psychology and cultural evolution.
youtu.be/mgDerXD0djI
www.podbean.com/eas/pb-qypm9...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

My first PhD paper is published! 🎉 We compared how wild bonobo and chimpanzee infants (0-5.5y) become independent from their mothers. Here is the open-access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

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Work (also) with me!

Two years postdoc in the @weaponisedpasts.bsky.social project, based in Edinburgh. Will do transmission chain experiments to understand the spread of heritage-based hostility, online and elsewhere.

More info
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Hanna posing with tthe medal with ASAB president Melissa

Congratulations to Hanna Kokko for receiving this year’s ASAB medal! Hanna has done extraordinary work and we are so pleased to honour her at #ASABWinter2025

In this blog post, Guest Editor @rachkendal.bsky.social discusses their #PhilTransB issue, 'Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures': royalsociety.org/blog/2025/12...

Each semester I go in my classroom and I try to figure out what we would use to block the doors, if it would be safe to crawl out the windows, where we could hide if there was a mass shooter in campus. It’s such an indictment of this country how we have normalized these preventable tragedies.

A new PNAS paper finds that polarization increased immediately after the invention of smartphones and the advent of social media, which both appeared around the same year, 2008.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A brief natural history of misinformation Abstract. The idea that organisms benefit by acquiring information through social connections is a cornerstone of our understanding of social evolution and

"misinformation is widespread in biological systems spanning levels of organization, and [...] is probably an inevitable property that inherits from fundamental constraints on biological communication systems, rather than a pathology"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...

I miss London!

Gender difference in self-reported empathy: Effects of task instructions and exposure to gender essentialism primes Women often score higher on average than men on self-report measures of empathy. However, self-report estimates of empathic tendencies and other attributes could be susceptible to a range of biases. F...

🚨New article on gender differences (Rajasekhar et al 2025): 'self-reported empathy appears to be related to social desirability and broader social attitudes, which suggests that a range of cultural and social factors might contribute to gender differences in empathy'. 🧪

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Thanks to Adeela Shafi, @drtwymanghoshal.bsky.social, Acheampong Charles Afriyie, Samuel Copland & Omar El Masri for their hard work in bringing together this excellent collection of articles.

Innovations in Decolonising the Curriculum: Multidisciplinary Perspectives.

– a new book about how to decolonize the curriculum, by Adeela ahmed Shafi et al.

www.emerald.com/books/edited...

Here is our chapter:

Volume 380 Issue 1940 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.

New special issues in Philosophical Transactions B highlight advances in cultural evolution and why they matter for challenges like inequality, cooperation, conservation, and education.
🔹 Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures
🖇️👇

Don’t forget to submit your #EHBEA2026 abstract before Dec 15! See you in beautiful Leiden in April! @ehbea2026.bsky.social @ehbea.bsky.social

This new issue of #PhilTransB expands the field of cultural #evolution and shows why it matters for today’s biggest challenges. It highlights research funded by the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social's Transformation Fund, which focused on #DEI: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

Super proud of this paper with @apvelilla.bsky.social and @babeheim.bsky.social, now out in Psych Review.

Non-paywalled version (preprint) here: osf.io/preprints/so...

End of quarter vibes.

"This Issue stems from the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund, designed to bridge the social & natural sciences, promote equity, diversity & inclusion & support work with policy relevance. This diversification of the CE field strengthens its capacity to positively shape global futures"

Advancing equity in collaborative research: reflections from the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund Abstract. As the field of cultural evolution marks its fiftieth anniversary, it has an opportunity not only to evolve in theory and scope, but also in ethi

Was great to contribute to this conversation about advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in the evolutionary behavioral sciences. Still a LONG way to go, but I'm optimistic things are moving in the right direction.

royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Excited to get this paper published! 🌟

We argue that men exaggerate patriarchal beliefs in an effort to signal conformity to others, which in turn fuels misperceptions about peers - making patriarchal norms resistant to change.

royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Picture of front cover of Theme Issue entitled "Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures." The image on the front cover is of a Yao honey hunter in Mozambique holding retrieved honeycomb.

Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

Theme Issue alert! Featuring awardees and the grant team of the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme, including DCERC members @rachkendal.bsky.social, @sheinalew.bsky.social, @amandinevisine.bsky.social, and @sarahewright.bsky.social

We are hiring a postdoc in the evolveD lab (evolvedlab.net) at Rutgers University. The remit is broad. We are looking for innovation, passion, and ethical collaboration. Please share the ad and email/ DM w/ Qs. We will start reviewing applications January 5.

Graphic advertising fully funded PhD studentships in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton, funded through the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP). Background image shows the Highfield campus at night. The text highlights: Application deadline: 16 January 2026, 16:00 GMT Research supervision areas: family and social demography, population and global health, migration and demographic modelling, statistical methodology, official statistics and survey methods Funding routes: 1+3.5 MSc + PhD (with Research-in-Practice placement) +3.5 PhD only (with placement) +4.5 interdisciplinary route (with placement) For details and how to apply: bit.ly/48u1cEa Contact: Dr Liliana Andriano – L.Andriano@soton.ac.uk Logos: University of Southampton and South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SC.DTP).

The Department of Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton is seeking candidates to apply for fully funded PhD positions through the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP; @scdtp.bsky.social).

🗓️ Deadline for 2026/27 entry: 16 January 2026, 16:00 GMT

More info ⬇️

On a roll with papers this week. PNAS paper with @michealdebarra.bsky.social giving some evidence to the idea that people turn to the supernatural because of uncertainty about causal processes. BONUS of curing whooping cough with donkeys and warts with snails 🐌

This is a really great interview.

Inspired me to add a Machine Culture lecture to my Cultural Evolution course.